Garden of Words

The Bay Factory: Here Comes the Sun

How happy was Thea to see sunshine last Sunday? We spent the better part of the day at Maymont and at the playground, trying to squeeze in every ounce of Vitamin D out of the day before the next snowstorm swept through Richmond and crushed our souls.

She didn't seem as interested in the otters as we were. If you haven't visited the Nature Center at Maymont, the two otters can be seen through a large wall of glass as they swim and frolic – you can actually stand at the glass and watch them twist and swirl under water.

I say she didn't seem as interested, because she was clearly ready to move along before we were. But this morning, when I mentioned that we might go to Maymont after her nap to see the sheep and goats, she immediately piped up, "And otters!"

Way to make an impression, water rats.

She spent more time trying to kiss the gigantic catfish in the Nature Center than she did looking at the otters. We need to work on what she considers to be "cute". Catfish shouldn't be on that list.

She even stopped long enough to smell the flowers. The tiny, tiny yellow flowers that were just beginning to pop out of a lone bush near the barns at Maymont.

The Baby Factory: Snow Buckets

Thea's new obsession as our successive series of snowstorms finally waned and gave way to slightly milder temperatures in mid-February was to create "snow buckets". She'd shovel melting snow into her plastic bucket. I'd pack it down. Together, we'd dump it upside down on the sidewalk and she'd spend the next 24 hours gazing out the window at her snow buckets on the sidewalk as they slowly melted away...

The Baby Factory: The Winter of Our Mixed Content

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(click the thumbnails above to see larger images.)

We had a love/hate relationship with what has been a long, dreary, cold, wet and snowy winter in Richmond, but I think Thea has fallen a bit head-over-heels with the ideas of snow, snowmen, icicles and her father breaking his back shoveling the sidewalk.

Like everyone in town with a child, I suspect, Nikole and I both began to dread the length of the days when we found ourselves snowbound. It only got worse as we waltzed through our second and third major winter storms, which seemed to be sandwiched by cold, rainy weekends.

But in the end, I suspect what we're going to remember about the winter of 2009-2010 is how much Thea loved the snow and cold. Whether she was feeding the dog icicles or sliding down the snow slope at her Mema and Papa Price's house, she was a lot of fun to be around as we clumped around, wiped snot off of our collective faces and watched our little toddler experience the fullness of the winter season.

The Baby Factory: Domesticity

 

Thea's fascination with the vacuum cleaner means that when we pull it out to suck up mountains of animal hair from the floor, or to clean up six thousand tiny pieces of quinoa after she throws her bowl of dinner into their air, she usually wants to vacuum something of her own. Like every single piece of her extensive wooden fruit and vegetable collection. Because we always vacuum food in our house before we eat.

The Baby Factory: Tower of Power

 

It's been very cool watching Thea migrate into a space of self-play over the last few months, especially as her hand-eye coordination and motor skills have caught up with her toys. Lately, I've wandered into the living room to discover her sitting by her bookshelf leaving through books, or quietly putting the pieces into the proper slots of her big, wooden puzzles.

A few weeks ago we worked together to build a giant tower of plastic blocks, which she then wanted to climb. Sadly, she has no desire to topple tall buildings once she's built them, which is one more piece of evidence that she's not a boy.

Also, she no longer wants to make towers with the blocks. She wants to make sliding boards for her little baby, and a bed for her teddy bear.

The Baby Factory: Thea's Bitchin' Kitchen

 

Count me among those who were dubious when Nikole proposed that she make a play kitchen for Thea as a Christmas gift. Okay, count me the only dubious person.

I think the starting point, for me, is simply that I'm the sort of person who calculates the complexity of a project against the costs of paying someone else to complete it for me. It was compounded by the fact that Nikole has never actually constructed anything using saws, nails and wood.

I'd forgotten that she'd also never made candles, or pottery, or jewelry, or scarves, or any a number of amazingly creative endeavors into which she's thrown herself over the course of our relationship.

Which explains just how wrong I was to count her out when it came to the kitchen, which arrived in our home in mid-January and has become the centerpiece of Thea's days.

Over at her A Happy Nest blog, Nikole describes the process of making the kitchen, along with the creative additions that she's made since – including felt cookies and pasta for Thea to use in the kitchen.

I'm lucky to have such a talented, creative woman in my life. And Thea's going to collect great memories as she grows up.